IP Routing Basics

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 Foreword
● There are typically multiple IP subnets on a typical data communication network. Layer
3 devices are required to exchange data between these IP subnets. These devices
have the routing capability and can forward data across subnets.
● Routing is the basic element of data communication networks. It is the process of
selecting paths on a network along which packets are sent from a source to a
destination.
● This course introduces the basic concepts of routing.

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 Objectives
● On completion of this course, you will be able to:
● Understand the basic principles of routers.

● Know how routers select optimal routes.

● Understand the contents of routing tables.

● Master advanced routing features.

Page 4 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▪ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 5 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Background: Inter-Subnet Communication

M
• An IP address uniquely identifies a node on a
network. Each IP address belongs to a unique
subnet, and each subnet may belong to a
different area of the network.
N
• To implement IP addressing, subnets in different
areas need to communicate with each other.

How to communicate with

the network M?

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 Routes
● Routes are the path information used to guide packet forwarding.

● A routing device is a network device that forwards packets to a destination subnet based on routes. The most common
routing device is a router.

● A routing device maintains an IP routing table that stores routing information.

Route-based Packet Forwarding

Router R4

Data R1 R2 R3

N M

Gateway Gateway

Destination-based forwarding

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 Routing Information

● A route contains the following information:

● Destination: identifies a destination subnet.
1.1.1.
[Link]/24 ● Mask: identifies a subnet together with a destination IP
2
address.
GE0/0/0
1.1.1. ● Outbound interface: indicates the interface through
3
which a data packet is sent out of the local router.

● Next hop: indicates the next-hop address used by the

IP routing table router to forward the data packet to the destination
Destination/Mask Outbound Next Hop subnet.
Interface
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 [Link] ● The information identifies the destination subnet and
specifies the path for forwarding data packets.

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 IP Routing Table
Destination/Mask Next Hop Outbound
[Link]/8 Interface

R4
• Routers discover routes using multiple
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/30 methods.
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/2 • A router selects the optimal route and installs
…
GE0/2 it in its IP routing table.
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 [Link] GE0/2
[Link]/32 [Link] GE0/2 • The router forwards IP packets based on
GE0/0 GE0/1 routes in the IP routing table.
[Link]/30 R2 [Link]/30
• Routers manage path information by
managing their IP routing tables.
[Link]/30 [Link]/30

R1 R3

[Link]/8 [Link]/8

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▪ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

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 How to Obtain Routing Information
• A router forwards packets based on its IP routing table. To implement route-based packet forwarding, the router
needs to obtain routes. The following describes the common methods of obtaining routes.

Direct Routes Static Routes Dynamic Routes

• Direct routes are automatically generated • Static routes are manually configured by • Dynamic routes are learned by dynamic
by devices and point to local directly network administrators. routing protocols running on routers.
connected networks. [Link]/24

GE0/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
GE0/0/1
[Link]/24

GE0/0/1
Dynamic routing
protocol
GE0/0/2 OSPF

Protocol Destination/Mask Outbound

Interface Protocol Destination/Mask Outbound Protocol Destination/Mask Outbound
Direct [Link]/24 GE0/0/0 Interface Interface

Direct [Link]/24 GE0/0/1 Static [Link]/24 GE0/0/1 OSPF [Link]/24 GE0/0/2

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 Direct Routes (1)
Direct Routes
• A direct route is automatically generated by a
device and points to a local directly-connected
GE0/0/0 network.
[Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 • When a router is the last hop router, IP packets to
RT [Link]/24 be forwarded will match a direct route and the
B
router will directly forward the IP packet to the
destination host.
Direct routes in the IP routing table of RTB • When a direct route is used for packet forwarding,
Destination/ Protocol Next Hop Outbound
Mask Interface
the destination IP address of a packet to be

[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/0

forwarded and the IP address of the router‘s

[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/1

outbound interface are in the same subnet.

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 Direct Routes (2)
Direct routes

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
• Not all the direct routes generated for interfaces are
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RT [Link]/24 RT [Link]/24 RT installed in the IP routing table. Only the direct
A B C
routes of which the physical status and protocol
status of interfaces are up are installed in the IP
routing table.
Direct routes in the IP routing table of RTB
Destination/Mask Protocol Next Hop Outbound
Interface
[Link]/24 Direct [Link] G0/0/1

• When GE0/0/0 goes down, the direct route for this interface is not
installed in the IP routing table.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▪ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 14 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Examining the IP Routing Table
<Quidway> display ip routing-table
Route Flags: R - relay, D - download to fib
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Routing
Tables: Public
Destinations : 6 Routes : 6

Destination/Mask Proto Pre Cost Flags NextHop Interface

[Link]/32 Static 60 0 D [Link] NULL0

[Link]/32 Static 60 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/24 Direct 0 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/32 Direct 0 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/8 Direct 0 0 D [Link] InLoopBack0
[Link]/32 Direct 0 0 D [Link] InLoopBack0

Destination/Mask Protocol Flag Next-hop Outbound

address interface
Route Cost
preference (Metric)

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 Fields in the IP Routing Table
● Destination/Mask: indicates the destination network address and mask of a specific route. The subnet address of a
destination host or router is obtained through the AND operation on the destination address and mask. For example, if
the destination address is [Link] and the mask is [Link], the IP address of the subnet to which the host or
router belongs is [Link].
● Proto (Protocol): indicates the protocol type of the route, that is, the protocol through which a router learns the route.
● Pre (Preference): indicates the routing protocol preference of the route. There may be multiple routes to the same
destination, which have different next hops and outbound interfaces. These routes may be discovered by different
routing protocols or be manually configured. A router selects the route with the highest preference (with the lowest
preference value) as the optimal route.
● Cost: indicates the cost of the route. When multiple routes to the same destination have the same preference, the route
with the lowest cost is selected as the optimal route.
● NextHop: indicates the local router’s next-hop address of the route to the destination network. This field specifies the
next-hop device to which packets are forwarded.
● Interface: indicates the outbound interface of the route. This field specifies the local interface through which the local
router forwards packets.

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 Route Preference - Basic Concepts
Comparing Route Preferences • When a router obtains routes to the same destination
subnet from different routing protocols (these routes
Routes have the same destination network address and
mask), the router compares the preferences of these

Different
routes and prefers the route with the lowest
Destination Installed in the IP
subnet/mask routing table preference value.
Same • A lower preference value indicates a higher

Higher Preference preference.

Preference
• The route with the highest preference is installed in
the IP routing table.

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 Route Preference - Comparison Process
Comparing Route Preferences

Dynamic routing
protocol [Link]/30 • RTA discovers two routes to [Link]/30, one is an
OSPF
[Link]/30
[Link]/30
OSPF route and the other a static route. In this
case, RTA compares the preferences of the two
RTA
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 routes and selects the route with the lowest
preference value.
• Each routing protocol has a unique preference.
IP routing table of RTA
• OSPF has a higher preference. Therefore, the
Destination/Mask Protocol Preference Next Hop

[Link]/30 Static 60 [Link] Installed in OSPF route is installed in the IP routing table.
the IP
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link] routing
table

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 Metric - Comparison Process
Metric comparison

Dynamic routing • RTA learns two routes with the same destination
protocol [Link]/30
OSPF address ([Link]/30) and preference through
Cost=10 Cost=10 [Link]/30
[Link]/30 OSPF. In this case, RTA needs to compare the
Cost=10
RTA metrics of the two routes.
[Link]/30 [Link]/30
• The two routes have different metrics. The
OSPF route with the next hop being [Link]
has a lower metric (with the cost 10), so it is
IP routing table of RTA
installed in the IP routing table.
Destination/Mask Protocol Cost Next Hop
Installed
[Link]/30 OSPF 20 [Link]
in the IP
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link] routing
table

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 Route Preference - Common Default Values
● The following table lists the default preference values of common route types:

Protocol Route Type Default Preference

Direct Direct route 0

Static Static route 60

Dynamic routing protocol OSPF internal route 10

OSPF external route 150

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 Metric - Basic Concepts
Comparing Metrics • When a router discovers multiple routes to the

Routes
same destination network through the same
routing protocol, the router selects the optimal
route based on the metrics of these routes if these
Different
Installed in the
Destination/mask IP routing table routes have the same preference.

Same
• The metric of a route indicates the cost of reaching
the destination address of the route.
Higher preference
Preference • Common metrics include the hop count,
bandwidth, delay, cost, load, and reliability.
Same
preference • The route with the lowest metric is installed in the
Lower metric IP routing table.
Metric
• The metric is also known as the cost.

Page 21 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▪ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 22 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Longest Matching
● When a router receives an IP packet, it compares the destination IP address of the packet with all routing
entries in the local routing table bit by bit until the longest matching entry is found. This is the longest
matching mechanism.

Bit-by-bit matching
Destination IP
172.16.2.
address 172. 16. 00000010 00000001
1
M
is
[Link] m
Routing entry 1 172. 16. 00000001 x x x x x x x axtc
h
[Link]
Lo
ng
es
[Link] 172. 16. 00000010 x x x x x x x txma
Routing entry 2 tc
[Link] h
No
t th
e
lo
Routing entry 3
[Link] 172. 16. xxxxxxxx x x x x mxatxc xnxge
h st
[Link]

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 Example of Longest Matching (1)
Example of Longest Matching

Destination IP [Link]/30
address:
• There are two routes to [Link] in the IP
[Link]
RTA
routing table of RTA, one has the 16-bit mask and
[Link]/30 the other has the 24-bit mask. According to the
DATA longest matching rule, the route with the 24-bit
mask is preferred to guide the forwarding of
[Link]/30
packets destined for [Link].
IP routing table of RTA
Destination/Mask Next Hop
[Link]/16 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] Match
[Link]/24 [Link]

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 Example of Longest Matching (2)
Example of Longest Matching

Destination IP [Link]/30
address:
[Link]
RTA
[Link]/30
• According to the longest matching rule, only the route
Data
to [Link]/24 in the IP routing table matches the
destination IP address [Link]. Therefore, this
[Link]/30
IP routing table of RTA route is used to forward packets destined for
Destination/Mask Next Hop [Link].
[Link]/16 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] Match

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 Route-based Forwarding Process
Destination/Mask Next Hop Outbound
Interface
Destination [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
IP address:
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
IP routing table of R2
Data
Gateway Gateway
GE0/1 GE0/0 GE0/0 GE0/1 GE0/0 GE0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
R1 R2 R3

IP routing table of R1 IP routing table of R3

Destination/Mask Next Hop Outbound Destination/Mask Next Hop Outbound
Interface Interface
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0

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 Summary of the IP Routing Table
• When a router obtains routes to the same destination subnet with the same mask from different routing
protocols, the router prefers the route with the lowest preference value of these routing protocols. If these
routes are learned from the same routing protocol, the router prefers the route with the lowest cost. In
summary, only the optimal route is installed in the IP routing table.

• When a router receives a packet, it searches its IP routing table for the outbound interface and next hop
based on the destination IP address of the packet. If it finds a matching routing entry, it forwards the packet
according to the outbound interface and next hop specified by this entry. Otherwise, it discards the packet.

• Packets are forwarded hop by hop. Therefore, all the routers along the path from the source to the
destination must have routes destined for the destination. Otherwise, packet loss occurs.

• Data communication is bidirectional. Therefore, both forward and backward routes must be available.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Application Scenarios of Static Routes
Static Routes • Static routes are manually configured by network
administrators, have low system requirements, and
apply to simple, stable, and small networks.
Destined for
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1 • The disadvantage of static routes is that they cannot
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
automatically adapt to network topology changes and
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RT [Link]/24 RT [Link]/24 RT so require manual intervention.
A B C
• RTA needs to forward the packets with the
destination address [Link]/24. However, the IP
Destination Protocol Next Hop
[Link] Static [Link] routing table of RTA has only one direct route, which
[Link] Direct [Link] does not match [Link]/24. In this case, a static
route needs to be manually configured so that the
packets sent from RTA to [Link]/24 can be
forwarded to the next hop [Link].
Page 29 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Static Route Configuration
● Specify a next-hop IP address for a static route.
[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } nexthop-address

● Specify an outbound interface for a static route.

[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } interface-type interface-number

● Specify both the outbound interface and next hop for a static route.
[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } interface-type interface-number [ nexthop-address ]

When creating a static route, you can specify both the outbound interface and next hop. Alternatively, you can
specify either the outbound interface or next hop, depending on the interface type:
For a point-to-point interface (such as a serial interface), you must specify the outbound interface.
For a broadcast interface (for example, an Ethernet interface) or a virtual template (VT) interface, you must specify
the next hop.

Page 30 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Configuration Example
GE0/0/0 S1/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
GE0/0/0 S1/0/0 Configure RTA.
RT [Link]/24 RT [Link]/24 RT
A B C [RTA] ip route-static [Link] [Link] [Link]

Destined for Destined for

[Link]/24 [Link]/24
Configure
• Configure static routes on RTA and RTC for communication RTC.
[RTC] ip route-static [Link] [Link] S1/0/0
between [Link]/24 and [Link]/24.
• Packets are forwarded hop by hop. Therefore, all the routers
along the path from the source to the destination must have
routes destined for the destination.
• Data communication is bidirectional. Therefore, both forward and
backward routes must be available.

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 Default Routes
• Default routes are used only when packets to be forwarded do not match any routing entry in an IP routing
table.

• In an IP routing table, a default route is the route to network [Link] (with the mask [Link]), namely,
[Link]/0. RTA needs to forward packets
to a subnet that is not directly
connected to it and forwards
the packets to [Link].

[Link]/24
RT RT [Link]/24
A GE0/0/0 GE0/0/0 B
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
10.0.0. .
10.0.0. .
1 2 [Link]/24

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link]

Page 32 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Application Scenarios of Default Routes
● Default routes are typically used at the egress of an enterprise network. For example, you can configure a
default route on an egress device to enable the device to forward IP packets destined for any address on
the Internet.

Enterprise
network RT
A [Link]/24 Internet
GE0/0/1 GE0/0/0 [Link]
PC [Link] [Link]
[Link]
Gateway: [Link]

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link]

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Overview of Dynamic Routing
Static Routing Dynamic Routing
• To use static routes on • Dynamic routes can be
Static routing any device, you must Dynamic routing automatically discovered
manually configure OSPF and learned.
them. • Dynamic routes can
• Static routes cannot adapt to topology
adapt to link changes. changes.

• When the network scale expands, it becomes increasingly • Dynamic routing protocols automatically discover and
complex to manually configure static routes. In addition, when generate routes, and update routes when the topology
the network topology changes, static routes cannot adapt to changes. These protocols effectively reduce the workload of
these changes in a timely and flexible manner. network administrators and are widely used on large
networks.

Page 35 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Classification of Dynamic Routing Protocols
Classification by the application scope

Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)

RIP OSPF IS-IS BGP

Classification by working mechanism and routing algorithm

Distance-vector routing protocol Link-state routing protocol

RIP OSPF IS-IS

Page 36 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 37 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Route Recursion (1)

● Route recursion is a recursive search process of the IP routing table where the next-hop IP
address is wanted to route packets towards its destination but when found it is not part of any
directly connected network.
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RT [Link]/24 RT [Link]/24 RT
A B C

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

The next hop of the route to [Link]/24 is [Link],

which is not on a directly connected network of RTA.
If the IP routing table does not have a route to
[Link], this static route does not take effect and
cannot be installed in the IP routing table.

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Route Recursion (2)

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RT [Link]/24 RT [Link]/24 RT
A B C

Destination/ Next Hop Outbound

Mask Interface
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
Recursio [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0/0
n [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0/0
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

Configure a route to [Link], with the next hop pointing to [Link] on the directly connected network.
In this way, RTA can recurse the route with the destination [Link]/24 to the route with the destination
[Link].

Page 39 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Equal-Cost Route
● When there are equal-cost routes in the IP routing table, a router forwards IP packets to be sent to the
destination subnet through all valid outbound interfaces and next hops in the equal-cost routes, achieving
load balancing.

RTA GE0/0/0 GE0/0/0 RT

[Link]/30 Cost=10 [Link]/30 B
[Link]/30
GE0/0/1 Cost=10 GE0/0/1
[Link]/30 [Link]/30

If there are multiple routes to the same

RTA's IP routing table destination from the same source, with the
same cost, but pointing to different next hops,
Destination/Mask Next Hop the routes are installed in the IP routing table
[Link]/30 [Link] as equal-cost routes. Traffic to be sent to the
destination will be distributed to these equal-
[Link] cost routes.

Page 40 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Floating Route - Basic Concepts

Floating Route
• Different preferences can be manually configured

RT for static routes. Therefore, you can configure two

B static routes with the same destination
address/mask but different preferences and next
[Link]/30
[Link]/30 hops to implement backup of forwarding paths.
[Link]/30 • A backup route is known as a floating route, which
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 is used only when the primary route is unavailable.
RT RT
A C That is, a floating route is installed in the IP routing
table only when the next hop of the primary route
Configure a floating route on RTA.
is unreachable.
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link]
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link] preference 70

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Floating Route - Example

Floating Route Switching

RT RT
B B
4
1. 0/ 2
.
20. 1 [Link]/30
for [Link]/30
t i ned [Link]/30 [Link]/30
s
De
[Link]/30 [Link]/30

[Link]/30 [Link]/30 [Link]/30 [Link]/30

RT RT RT RT
A C A C
Destined for [Link]/24

RTA's IP routing table when the primary link is available RTA's IP routing table when the primary link fails
Destination Next Hop Preference Destination Next Hop Preference
[Link] [Link] 60 [Link] [Link] 70

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

CIDR
• Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) uses IP addresses and masks to identify networks and subnets. CIDR replaces
the previous addressing architecture of classful network design (such as classes A, B, and C addresses).

• CIDR is based on variable length subnet mask (VLSM). CIDR uses prefixes of any lengths to divide the address space
with continuous IP addresses. Multiple address segments with continuous prefixes can be summarized into a network,
effectively reducing the number of routing entries.

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/22

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/23

[Link]/21
192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/21

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/23

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Background of Route Summarization

• Subnet division and VLSM resolve the problem of address space waste, but also bring a new challenge:
increasing routing entries in the IP routing table.

• Route summarization can minimize routing entries.

[Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24

[Link]/24

RTB's IP routing table

RT
[Link]/24 A To route traffic to the directly connected network
[Link]/24 segments of RTA, RTB must have routes to these
[Link]/24 network segments. If a static route is manually
[Link]/24 configured for each network segment, the configuration
[Link]/24 workload will be heavy and RTB's IP routing table will
RT
[Link]/24 have a large number of routing entries.
B [Link]/24

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Overview of Route Summarization

[Link]/24
[Link]/24
RT RT
... • Route summarization is an approach of summarizing
A 12.1.1. B
...
2 ... routes with the same prefix into one summary route to
12.1.1.
1 [Link]/24
minimize the IP routing table size and improve device
resource usage.

• Route summarization uses CIDR to summarize network

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]
segments with the same prefix into a single one.

• The routes before being summarized are known as

On RTA, configure static routes to the directly specific routes, and the routes created after
connected network segments [Link]/24,
[Link]/24, ..., and [Link]/24 of RTB, with the summarization are known as summarized routes or
same next hop. Therefore, these routes can be
summary routes.
summarized into one route.

Page 45 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Summarization and Calculation

192 168 X 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 0 1 0 1 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 0 1 0 1 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 0 1 0 1 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Network address Host address

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 0 1 0 1 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
[Link]/22

• To summarize routes to multiple continuous network segments into one summary route that just includes these
network segments, ensure that the mask length of the summary route is as long as possible.

• The key to achieve this is to convert the destination addresses of specific routes into binary numbers and then find
out the identical bits in these binary numbers.

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Problems Caused by Route Summarization (1)

Routing Loop

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link] [RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]

[Link]/24
[Link]/24 RT RT
... B 12.1.1. A
Internet
... 2
12.1.1.
... 1
1 2
[Link]/24

RTB receives traffic destined Routes are summarized on RTA.

for [Link]/24 and forwards Therefore, RTA forwards the traffic
the traffic to RTA according to back to RTB according to the
the default route. Loop summary route to [Link]/16.

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Problems Caused by Route Summarization (2)

Solution for Preventing Routing Loops

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link] [RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]

[Link]/24
[Link]/24 RT RT
... B 12.1.1. A
Internet
... 2
... 12.1.1.
[Link]/24 1

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 16 0 NULL0

• Configure a route pointing to Null0 on RTB to

prevent routing loops when summarizing routes.

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Accurate Route Summarization (1)

RT [Link]/24
10.0.0. B [Link]/24
2 ...
RT [Link]/24
A

20.0.0.
2 RT
[Link]/24
C
[Link]/24
...
[Link]/24

[RTA] ip route-static 172.16.0 16 [Link]

• To simplify the configuration, an administrator may configure a static summary route on RTA to allow RTA to reach network
segments [Link]/24 to [Link]/24 of RTB. However, this summary route also includes the network segments of RTC. As
a result, RTA forwards the traffic destined for network segments of RTC to RTB, causing data packet loss. This problem is caused
by inaccurate route summarization. To resolve this problem, the summary route must be as accurate as possible; that is, it just
covers all specific routes that are to be summarized, with no extra route included.

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 Equal-Cost Route
Route Recursion Floating Route
Route Summarization

Accurate Route Summarization (2)

10 1 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

/22
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 22 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

Accurately calculate the summarized

network address and mask to ensure
accurate route summarization.

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 Quiz
1. How does a router select the optimal route?
2. How do I configure a floating route?
3. What is the summary route for routes to [Link]/24, [Link]/24, and [Link]/24?

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 Summary
● This section presents the basic concepts of routes, how routes instruct routers to
forward IP packets, common route attributes, and default routes (special static routes).
● In addition, this section describes advanced routing features including route recursion,
floating routes, and equal-cost routes, which are widely used on live networks.

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 Thank You
[Link]

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